St. Charles Darwin Unveiled: Catholics, Anglicans Finally Agreed on Evolution

Isn’t it uncanny that on the eve of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the appearance of ‘On the Origin of Species’ - the Bible of much vilified evolution theorists - Christendom might just be unveiling the latest saint?

This week, the doubtful naysayers may have been proven wrong: the Vatican has lifted a centuries-old veil of official hostility towards and denial of the Theory of Evolution to admit it was actually compatible with the Bible.

The Church of England, as the Anglican Church is officially known in the UK, wasn’t going to be left behind and issued their own confirmation that Darwin’s theory never conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation.

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However, Roman Catholics will depart from the tradition of making amends with dead scientists, complete with erecting a statue as in the case of Galileo after conceding the Earth actually revolves around the Sun.

Vatican won’t offer an apology to the poor, tormented soul of Charles Darwin despite the belated acceptance that evolution was compatible with creationism, as depicted in the Bible.

In a May 7 1879 letter to an atheist, John Fordyce, who had asked him whether evolution and God were compatible, Darwin replied, stressing he had never been an atheist himself: “It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent theist and an evolutionist”.

The doubt has finally been lifted. Revd Dr Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Church of England, has retrospectively penned a document called ‘Good Religion Needs Good Science’.

He says: “There is no reason to doubt that Christ still draws people towards truth through the work of scientists as well as others, and many scientists are motivated in their work by a perception of the deep beauty of the created world”.

The Church of England goes further. It is actually honoring Charles Darwin with an apology and a dedicated section on the man, his works, his beliefs and his theory on their website. Talk of theistic evolution coming around full cycle.

Image credits: (Top) CATR and (above) Kansas City Royalty at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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